Mylanna Holman
Mrs. Steinkuhler
English Ⅰ
13 December 2016
A Tragic Friendship In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are polar opposites that stick together even through all the hard times that they have. Lennie always gets into trouble because he loves to pet soft things. Because of his affection for soft things, it causes him to kill Curley’s wife. Lennie then goes to the place where George says to go when there is trouble. When George meets up with Lennie, George makes him daydream about their ranch; however, while he is daydreaming, George shoots Lennie. George was right to kill Lennie because George saved Lennie from doing wrong in the future and gave him a more peaceful death. One reason George was right to kill Lennie is because now Lennie will not get into anymore trouble. Lennie says, “You wasn’t big enough… they tol’ me and tol’ me you wasn’t. I di’n’t know you’d get killed so easy” (Steinbeck 85-86). Now that Lennie is no longer alive, nobody else will be accidentally killed by him. Also, George says, “I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shovin’ all over the country all the time…” (Steinbeck 11). Without Lennie, George can stay in
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However, the other guys would have let Lennie suffer. Slim explains, “If we could keep Curley in, we might. But Curley’s gonna want to shoot ‘im… An’ suppose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George” (Steinbeck 99). If George would have let Lennie go, Curley would have done painful things to Lennie. Furthermore, George says, “You… an’ me, Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from ‘em” (Steinbeck 106). Before George shot Lennie, he made him think about their future on the ranch. Curley would not have given Lennie a merciful death like George
Death, the one thing every person will eventually face, could be seen as an end or an entrance. What is your extent of a friendship? How far are you willing to go to help the person you care for? For many reasons, the majority of people think murder is immoral—especially if it was your own best friend. But sometimes we may have to go to the extreme, as long as we know it was the right thing to do from the heart because that’s how much you know you care. In the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, I strongly believe that George was right to kill Lennie.
Curley’ll get ‘im killed”” (Steinbeck 94). During the entire book, George has one focus, to protect Lennie. The problem is, once Lennie murders Curley’s wife, George can not protect Lennie anymore. If George let Lennie get locked up, Curley would have ended up murdering Lennie and all the men of the Ranch would have supported Curley, so he would not be safe anywhere near the Ranch.
He knew that it was his responsibility to kill Lennie. He killed Lennie because he was responsible for him. George also killed him because he did not want to feel guilty or bad like Candy. George also didn’t want Lennie to have a painful death by the hands of Curley’s gang. He knew that it would be best for him and Lennie for him to do it himself. He wanted Lennie to feel comfortable and he wanted to tell him how he felt. George says “No, Lennie. I ain’t mad. I never been mad an’ I ain’t now. That’s a thing I want you to know”(Steinbeck 106). George did the right
Individuals have had to do something they do not want to do at least once in their lives. It could be something small, or something to a bigger extent. In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, many characters struggle with loneliness because the novel is set during the Great Depression when many people found it difficult to make a living. This is one of the reasons why many readers find it odd that Lennie Small and George Milton travel together in these desperate times. George and Lennie look out for each other at every place they go. At the Tyler Ranch, Lennie’s disability causes him to get into trouble, big trouble. George has to make the toughest decision of his life: kill his friend or let him die a painful death. George decided to kill Lennie because he would not be able to allow Lennie to experience misery. George Milton did not kill Lennie Small out of hate, but out of friendship.
In John Steinbeck's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, George makes the decision of killing Lennie because he knows it is in Lennie's best interest. His act of killing Lennie is not considered criminal. George has good intentions in killing his companion. George is trying to prevent Lennie from being tortured and from his constant desire to please George and not cause trouble. Additionally, Lennie repeatedly places himself in difficult situations, and as a result, brings George into the circumstances. There is a close friendship between George and Lennie, and George had carefully thought out whether or not he
As many people who were out to get Lennie, the only person qualified to kill him was George. George has been there for Lennie, his whole life, “Him and me was both born in Auburn… When his Aunt Clara died, Lennie just come along with me out workin’. Got kinda used to each other after a little while” (Steinbeck 40). Furthermore, George was only trying to take away more suffering later in the future. Since Lennie killed Curley’s wife,
If Lennie was not abruptly killed by George he would have suffered physical harm from Curley, the Police, and other farm hands. The threat of violence was imminent as Curley states “'I'm gonna shoot the guts out that big bastard myself, even if I only got one hand. I' gonna get 'im'”(Steinbeck 98). Curley wants revenge for his lost hand, dead wife, and his bruised ego. Curley’s strive for vengeance suggests the interaction between him and Lennie will be extremely hostile. Lennie does not deserve to suffer an intense physical beating, if he was to be incarcerated or put in isolation, however, his euthanasia would not be justified. “...doctors to be able to end the lives of terminally ill patients ‘swiftly, humanely and without guilt’- even if they have not given consent”(Source E). Lennie's fate can be seen as terminal, a slow painful death, and George would thus have the right to end his life humanely. Since Lennie’s death is imminent and foreseen to be violent George takes it upon himself to justly give Lennie a merciful, peaceful, and painless
In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie learn to travel and experience the world together as they take on a new job working on a ranch in central California "bucking barley" for the ranch owner and his son. Lennie, not being able to control his actions, hurts too many people and things and men were chasing after the two, so George decides to take action and shoot Lennie. Although some may disagree, George did the right thing by shooting Lennie because he could not have avoided hurting someone else in the future, he could not eventually learn that the things he did were wrong due to his disability, and he could not learn to eventually control his own strength.
Imagine going through life without having any friends. The story Of Mice and Men, by
The first reason why George is justified in killing Lennie is because Lennie is worthless like Candy’s dog. Candy’s dog is causing trouble for the men, and suffering while it's still alive “Ain’t nothing left for him. Can’t eat, can’t see, can’t even walk without hurtin’( Steinbeck 47). Like Lennie, the dog is physically impaired. The dog can hardly walk and Lennie has some trouble moving around. Lennie is worthless, because he does
To Have Somebody At the end of the day, don't we all just want to be needed, to be cared and to know that we are not alone? The answer is yes, we do, and hence we cherish friendship and treat our friends like families. Author John Steinbeck successfully illustrated the significance of friendship in his renowned novel, Of Mice and Men. The story takes place in 1930, time of the Great Depression.
A piece of text from the book Of Mice and Men says that, “Guys like us got no family. They make a little stake an’ then they blow it. They ain’t got nobody in the worl’ that gives a hoot in [heck] about ‘em” (Steinbeck 104). Therefore, George was pointing out to Lennie that they have what most guys in their time period don’t, they have each other and George is telling Lennie that that’s how he wants it to stay. George doesn’t want to kill Lennie, but he feels like has to. George is going to regret this in his future. A different quote I found is when George and Lennie are talking, “Lennie said ‘I thought you was mad at me, George.’ ‘No, Lennie. I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now. That’s the thing I want ya to know’” (Steinbeck 106). Therefore, this quote tells us that George doesn’t want to kill Lennie, but he feels as if he needs to. Lennie was George’s only family and George wants Lennie to know that before he kills him. George cares about Lennie and George is not going to be happy after Lennie is gone for a little bit. The act of George killing Lennie is
But Lennie, perfecting his craft one incident at a time, messes everything up. Lennie’s biggest fear was not being able to tend the rabbits when they get their own land, and he loved those rabbits. Lennie grieving over killing his puppy starts conversing with Curley’s wife, a decision he should have never made. Lennie got caught in an unbelievable predicament with Curley’s wife, he was holding her mouth shut while pulling her hair, getting angry at her tell her to shut up, because he does not want to get in trouble. Because, if he did he would not be able to tend the rabbits. As she continued to scream, louder and louder as seconds went by, Lennie with his harmless intentions did not know what to do, so he shook her to get her to shut up but unintentionally broke her neck (Steinbeck, 91). Lennie knowing what to do if he ever did something bad, escapes to the hideout that only him and George know about. Eventually, everybody finds out about Curley’s wife when Candy found her dead body in the barn. At this moment, George knew he had two decisions that would change his life forever. He would either side with his new friends and find Lennie, or escape with Lennie and find another place to work. George makes the right decision and sides with his friends, but he knew they wanted Lennie dead, so he decided to do it himself. George met up with Lennie at their hideout and told him to look the other way and envision everything good about the farm, not wanting to harm Lennie he made sure he was as happy as he could be at that very moment. As George started to describe the farm to him, he put the gun to the back of his neck and pulled the
In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck George kills his best friend Lennie. George’s reasoning for this is that Lennie is killing too many people and has become a burden. Lennie does not realize that he is doing wrong by accidentally killing animals and people. George says that he is doing this for other’s benefit when really he is doing this for his own good. This was wrong of George and he is guilty because even though Lennie was accidentally
George eventually finds out about the death of Curley’s wife so he sets out and kills Lennie by the river. Lennie dies a gentle death, thinking only the happiest thoughts. The moment before he died, his mind is filled with their farm and there rabbits and there dream. Steinbeck reminds you that Lennie is still as gentle as he ever is, despite the fact that he killed